As a connector, the female terminal of which is electrically connected to the male terminal of a mating connector, a shield connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 is available.
As shown in FIG. 9, a J/B (junction box) 505 covered with an aluminum cover 503 is provided with a waiting-side connector 507, and this waiting-side connector 507 faces the outside of the aluminum cover 503 through a mounting opening 509 provided in the aluminum cover 503. A shield connector 501 is fitted into the waiting-side connector 507 through the mounting opening 509 of the aluminum cover 503.
The shield connector 501 includes a housing (female-side housing) 511 that can be fitted into the waiting-side connector 507, a shield shell 513, made of metal, for covering the outer peripheral face of the housing 511, a pushing piece 515 provided on the shield shell 513 and elastically deformable, and an engaging protrusion 517 provided on the housing 511 and elastically contactable with the pushing piece 515. The shield shell 513 is made close to the side of the aluminum cover by fastening bolts, whereby the pushing piece 515 makes contact with the engaging protrusion 517 so as to push the housing 511 into the waiting-side connector 507.
The waiting-side connector 507 has a hood section 519 being open to the front side, and this hood section 519 faces the outside of the aluminum cover 503 through the mounting opening 509 in the aluminum cover 503. Inside the hood section 519, a plurality of male tab terminals (male terminal) 521 are provided. The front end sides of the tab terminals 521 are disposed so as to protrude forward from the inner wall of the hood section 519, and the rear end sides of the tab terminals 521 are connected to a circuit board (not shown) disposed inside the J/B 505.
In the shield connector 501 having the above-mentioned configuration, the tab terminal 521 enters inside from the front end opening of a female terminal 523 and elastically makes contact with an elastic contact piece 525 provided inside the female terminal 523 so as to extend in the longitudinal direction of the terminal. The tab terminal 521 is electrically connected to the elastic contact piece 525 while their contact faces make sliding contact with each other in the face direction along the insertion direction of the terminal. In this contact state, an effective contact area is secured between the tab terminal 521 and the elastic contact piece 525. Furthermore, the locking protrusion of a locking arm 527 is locked to a section 529 to be locked, whereby the housing 511 is held in a state of being normally fitted to the waiting-side connector 507.